Chief Moves To Fire Officer

Hollywood Cop Accused Of Lying

HOLLYWOOD - — Police Chief Richard Witt moved to fire and prosecute a veteran officer on Tuesday for his part in the hiring scandal that has gripped the department for two months.

In a hand-delivered letter, Witt charged that Officer Angel de la Rosa violated the state's "official misconduct" statute four times and department policies more than 80 times during six years as a background investigator and polygraph examiner in the department's personnel unit. The charges against de la Rosa, 36, came after a lengthy internal affairs investigation that found the 15-year veteran falsified official documents and lied and broke departmental rules while processing job applicants from 1989 to 1995.

De la Rosa, who has been suspended with pay since Dec. 30, has until Thursday to appeal dismissal. If his appeal is unsuccessful, he will be fired.

The case against de la Rosa also will be sent to the Broward State Attorney's Office on Thursday, unless he persuades Witt not to pursue the complaint.

He is the first of four suspended personnel officers in line for potential punishment for their handling of police hiring. The other three are being investigated on similar charges.

In December, an independent investigator reported flaws in the way the four hired 40 of 67 officers since 1990.

Despite doling out explosive documents and reports on Tuesday, fueling a new turn in the scandal that began on Dec. 1, officials were again tight-lipped on the investigation itself.

"We have a very detailed document that speaks for itself. The chief has made a decision based on that detailed document," said Joseph Serota of Weiss Serota & Helfman, the law firm representing the city in the hiring cases.

The controversy has caused morale problems in the department, with some officers saying the public has lost respect for them. Officials have since attempted to focus the controversy on the four suspended officers and not on those they hired.

Officers hired during de la Rosa's tenure will not be affected by his errors, police said.

Some specific charges from Witt's letter to de la Rosa:

-- In 13 instances between April 1992 and May 1995, de la Rosa lied about contacting character witnesses and previous employers of job candidates as part of background investigations, as well as made false, misleading and untruthful statements to job applicants.

-- He signed forms with inaccurate information, claiming to have conducted complete criminal checks when he had not. In one case, he copied a previous background investigation while claiming it was new.

-- He falsely represented one civilian job as requiring "heavy lifting and working the midnight shift" when it did not. A woman who wanted the job said the effort was made to discourage female applicants and to give the job to a lesser qualified man.

-- A polygraph expert found flawed conclusions in 20 of 22 polygraph tests given by de la Rosa between May 1989 and February 1995. De la Rosa's analyses directly affected the hiring eligibility of those job candidates. "I think a lot of it is whether it goes beyond simple errors," said polygraph expert Warren D. Holmes, hired to evaluate de la Rosa's work.

Holmes, a polygraph examiner for 41 years, said he periodically judges the work done by others, but mostly does his own polygraph work as a private contractor. Holmes, who said he worked in the Miami Police Department from 1955 to 1963 and lectured with the FBI, said, "The problem with lie detection is we all have a margin of error no matter who the polygraph examiner happens to be. The question is, are there legitimate errors being made?" He declined to comment on specifics in the Hollywood case because he expects to testify as an expert for the city in possible court hearings or other legal proceedings.

Among documents that city officials allege de la Rosa falsified are forms established by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and used in hiring and certifying police officers.

Official misconduct, a felony, is defined under state law as "knowingly falsifying, or causing another to falsify any official record or official document."

A conviction could land de la Rosa in jail for up five years. He also could be fined up to $5,000.

Assistant State Attorney John Countryman, head of the prosecution team in Broward County that handles police and government corruption, said: "I can't really discuss it. They had very, very, very early contact with us, but nothing specific."

Neither de la Rosa nor his attorney could be reached for comment on Tuesday.

City Manager Sam Finz, who orchestrated the independent investigation, declined to comment on Tuesday, citing an ongoing inquiry.

At one point during the investigation, Witt, who had called the department's problems a "disaster," decided to retire, in part over the city's handling of the scandal. Two days later, he decided to delay his retirement until August 1997 and was subsequently slapped with a gag order by Finz. Witt has declined to talk about the charges since.

De la Rosa is one of four officers targeted in a two-month investigation into corrupted hiring practices sparked by a Sun-Sentinel investigation that named 11 job candidates who were hired despite having arrest records and low civil service test scores. Some candidates, including several with relatives in the department, appeared to receive favored treatment.

The other personnel officers under investigation are: Deputy Chief Gilbert Frazier, 52, a 27-year veteran; Sgt. Tony Rode, 36, who joined the department in 1979; and Officer Philip Tortorici, 54, a 20-year veteran. The three have been suspended with pay since Dec. 1. The investigation into any part they may have played in the hiring scandal will take several more weeks, officials said.

"We plan on moving along as quickly as possible while giving due consideration of the situation. We want to be as thorough as possible, and that's only fair," police spokeswoman Stephanie Norris said.